Timeline of a Stalker
by boswifedeb
Summary: Matt gets called in by Lt. Michael Hoyt once again when a bizarre double murder comes to light. Can they locate the next possible victim before it's too late? **Immediately follows "When You Least Expect It"** Rated T.
1. Chapter 1

"**Timeline of a Stalker"**

****This story takes place immediately after "When You Least Expect It"****

"**Every man's life ends the same way.**

**It is only the details of how he lived**

**and how he died that distinguish one man from another."**

― **Ernest Hemingway**

**CHAPTER 1**

"Hey, Uncle Roy. How's it going?" Matt was riding up in the elevator to his office in the penthouse suite of the Houston Industries building. As he stepped off, he smiled at his secretary, the former Chris Atwater, now the new Mrs. Murray Chase. She had married the CEO of Houston Industries about a month previously and had enjoyed a three week honeymoon at the Tahitian resort that Matt and CJ Houston owned. Matt had bought it as a wedding present to CJ when they had been married seventeen months earlier.

"It's going really good, Mattlock. We got into Houston last night about 6:00 and Madre Rosa was waiting on us with some of her famous tamales. It's a wonder Will and Vince can move at all this morning – they had a contest to see who could eat the most last night." Roy sounded like he was in a good mood. He had been enjoying the jobs that he had been doing along with his son Will and Matt's best friend Vince Novelli. They had won a bid to install security systems in a chain of jewelry stores across the country. This was their fourth city so far and they had managed to get done ahead of schedule on each job. Since they were working in Houston that week, they were staying at Matt's ranch there. He had lived there from the time he was five years old until he moved to Los Angeles several years earlier. Madre Rosa, the housekeeper who had helped Bill Houston raise Matt was still living and working there and was tickled to have guests in the house. Although Matt and CJ had spent a good deal of her pregnancy at the ranch, they were back in LA now and back to running the detective agency. "So how are things going there, are you managing without the old coot as these boys like to call me?"

"We're muddling through somehow." Matt walked into CJ's office and gave his wife a kiss. "How is life on the road?"

"Real good. We've managed to keep out of jail so far, so I'll take that as a win." He looked over at his son who just rolled his eyes at his dad. "What about you? Had any interesting cases?"

"Oh, nothing major. But I did just get back from registering for school." Matt knew Roy would have a field day with that.

"School? Aren't you a little OLD for that?" Both Vince and Will were now listening and Roy put his phone on speaker.

"No, evidently not. They didn't seem to think there was anything too unusual about it. Most of the folks taking the classes already work for the fire department or are headed that way. They start next month so I've got a little bit before I have to worry about it too much."

"What's he doing – trying to become Smokey the Bear?" Vince and Will high-fived each other.

"Howdy Vince. No, I've been asked to be a consultant to the Fire Marshal's office with investigations, just like with the LAPD."

"Wow, seriously? That's great man. So what kind of classes do you have to take?" He was impressed.

"Well, let's see here. Let me pull out my list. Okay, I've gotFIRE 110 Introduction to Fire Technology**, **FIRE 112 Fundamentals of Fire Behavior and Control, FIRE 124 Applied Chemistry, and FIRE 146 Fire Investigation. I'm only going to be taking one at a time – my schedule is a little too full for all of 'em at once."

"Chemistry, huh? That one will probably be the toughest for you." Roy was thinking back to a case that Matt had worked right before Chris and Murray's wedding in which he had found some chemical formulas for making illegal drugs.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'll get through it, though." Matt was actually looking forward to going to the classes. "It should be interesting."

"So will you be playing football again, Cuz?" Will couldn't resist teasing his cousin about his days as a college football star.

"Nope, I'm gonna leave that to the younger folks." Matt winked at CJ as he picked up his four month old daughter Catey Rose who was excited to see him. She squealed and began giving him kisses on his chin, causing him to laugh.

"I hear a happy little girl there." Roy had really been enjoying Catey's company at the office.

"Yeah, CJ's really happy to see me." Matt laughed as his wife rolled her eyes at him. "And she's slobbering on my chin, too." He could hear laughter from all the men on the other end of the call.

"Alright, well you two try to keep it under control at the office and tell Catey that I said she's in charge while I'm gone." Roy was proud of how well Matt and CJ were doing raising their daughter and was looking forward to more great nieces and nephews.

"Okay, you boys stay out of trouble and tell Madre Rosa I said hello. Talk to you later." He hung up his cell phone and started talking to his daughter. "How's my girl doing this morning? Are you keeping Mama out of trouble?" Catey gurgled and squealed, thrilled to have her dad paying attention to her.

"She's been good as can be." CJ got up to pull a paper from the printer and walked over to give her husband a kiss. "So I'm going to be married to a college student, huh?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

"It's only four classes, Babe." He pulled her down closer for another kiss and Catey decided to squeal loudly, driving her mother back covering her ears.

"I think she's jealous." CJ tickled her daughter's chin and walked back over to her desk just as the phone rang. She had gotten so used to Chris being gone that she almost reached over to answer it until Matt gave her the "NNNNNT!" buzzer sound and smiled at her. "Sorry, after three weeks it just kind of became automatic."

Chris came to the door. "Houston, line two. It's Michael."

Matt put his daughter back down in the playpen and gave her one of her stuffed teddy bears to occupy her. He walked out to the couch and sat down, picking up the phone. "Hey Hoyt – what's up?"

"Nothing good. Are you in the middle of something?" The veteran detective sounded like he was almost too tired to talk.

"No, as a matter of fact I'm not. Whatcha got?"

"Have you heard about the murders that were discovered overnight?"

"Actually I haven't. I had to go register for my classes and I was listening to CD's on the way over there and back."

"Classes? Oh yeah, the fire marshal deal. Do you think you can come take a look?" Michael Hoyt was standing in the midst of a bloody crime scene.

"Sure. Where is it?" Matt picked up a pad of paper and wrote down the address that Hoyt gave him. "Okay, I'll be there ASAP. 'Bye." He got up to let CJ know that he would be out with Hoyt and gave her and Catey a kiss goodbye as his daughter was busy drinking a bottle. "Love you, Babe."

"Love you, too. Be careful." She picked up Catey's right hand and waved it at Matt. "'Bye, Daddy!"

Matt gave both of his ladies a big smile and headed back out to the elevator, stopping long enough to give Chris a little hug.

"What caused that?" The secretary was surprised by the hug.

"I'm glad you're back." He pushed the button for the elevator and stepped onboard singing one of his favorite songs, and surprising his secretary even further.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Matt pulled up to the address that Hoyt had given him: a building that contained loft apartments on Flower Street. As Matt put the truck into park, he reached for the LAPD civilian ID that Hoyt had given him about a month earlier. He had been instructed to wear it not only when entering the police station, but also when he came to crime scenes. Getting out of the truck, Matt approached the door of the apartments and was met by one of his friends: Sgt. Larry Carlisle. He smiled as Matt neared the door. "Well looky here, Junior – they called in the cowboy. How ya doin', Houston?" Matt shook the offered hand.

"Pretty good, Larry, how's the missus?" He had known the police officer for the last few years after moving to LA.

"She's good. How 'bout your girls?" He elbowed his partner, a rookie that he was in the middle of training. "He's fixing to whip out the phone now, kid, see?" He laughed as Matt did exactly as expected and showed Larry the latest pictures of CJ and Catey Rose. "She's a cutie. When are you and CJ planning on another one?"

"Oh, for some reason she wants to wait until Catey's a year old before trying again." Matt grinned. "Guess I better get up there and meet with Hoyt. He sounded kinda tired when he called."

"Yep, I don't doubt it. See ya later."

Matt headed for the elevator and closed the gate on the old freight elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor. As he opened the gate and stepped out he saw the activity down toward the left and headed that way. He was met at the door by another young officer who wouldn't let him pass. "Lieutenant? There's a guy named Houston here." He eyed the private investigator dubiously.

"Yeah, Sanders, I called him in. From now on, don't stop the man. He's a consultant for the department." Hoyt walked toward the door.

"Sorry, sir, I didn't know." He apologized to Matt, who stuck out his hand and shook with the young cop.

"Hey, you're trying to do your job, no hard feelings." He grinned at the young man and headed on over to his friend. Back when he and Hoyt had first met, neither would have expected that they would turn into the best of friends in such a short amount of time. "Mornin'. What've we got?"

"Take a look and tell me what you think." Hoyt stepped out of the way as Matt put on a pair of black batting gloves and the young cop watched with unmasked curiosity.

The private investigator stepped over toward the wall where the body of a young woman lay in a large pool of blood. She was naked except for a pair of panties and had three upside-down crosses hacked into her body: one over each breast and one just below her navel. She had also been stabbed directly in the heart. "Oh boy, not again."

"What do you mean "not again"?" Hoyt was completely surprised.

"When I was in Texas I helped the Houston Police Department with a serial killer. He had used sulfuric acid to remove his finger print, then replaced it with one of these." He motioned to the crosses on the body of the dead female. "They can have a couple of meanings. Some refer to them as the Cross of St. Peter – used by the popes some. Or they can be a satanic symbol."

Hoyt was surprised that Houston had known about the history of the symbol. As a practicing Catholic, Michael Hoyt was familiar with its uses. "That guy's not on the loose again is he?"

"I sure hope not, but I can find out real quick." Matt pulled out his phone and called Michael Littlebear, the detective that he had worked with on the serial killer case right before the previous Christmas. "Hey Littlebear, how's it goin'?"

"Good man, how about you?" Michael Littlebear was walking around the perimeter of a crime scene. "Are you looking for a job, 'cause I've got a doozy that I'm on."

"Well I am, too. I was just talking with Lt. Hoyt. Our boy from last December isn't on the loose again – is he?" Matt most sincerely hoped not. The man was as crazy as a bed bug.

"No, he's still locked up and going through the process of getting ready for trial." Littlebear had hoped that Matt was in town – he sure would have liked to pick his brain over the current case that he was working.

"Good. Well maybe not. I guess it would be bad. Whoever did the murders that I'm looking at right now is using the same symbol, only he's hacking the crosses into the bodies of his victims." Matt had made it over to look at the body of the male that was a few feet from the female. His wounds were nearly identical, including the stab wound to the heart.

"Wow, not good. Well good luck with it."

"Same to ya, bud. Holler at you later. 'Bye." Matt hung up. "Not the guy from Texas. This is some other nut job." He squatted down and took a closer look at the wounds on the male, then lifted the somewhat bloody sheet that was half-way covering his pubic area. "Damn." The man's penis had been hacked with the symbol as well.

"Yeah, pretty much what I said, give or take." Michael Hoyt walked over to the private investigator. "The girl is Sherri Betts, 22, a model. No arrest record. This guy," he indicated the male, "is Logan Holcomb, age 24, a free-lance photographer - also no arrest record. This is his apartment." The pair walked around looking into the closets and drawers in the bedroom area of the loft.

"So who found them?" Matt hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary aside from the mutilated bodies.

"The super. The other neighbors in the surrounding apartments were complaining about the noise – those on either side as well as on the floor above and below." Hoyt pulled the always-present roll of antacids out of his pocket, popping one into his mouth. "When the officers arrived on the scene the stereo was turned up full blast."

"I take it there haven't been any others found like this?" Matt motioned to the lifeless young couple on the floor.

"No." Hoyt didn't have to add the "not yet" part that Matt knew he was thinking.

"Do you know anything else about them yet?" Matt continued to look around the apartment and was coming up empty.

"No. We've interviewed the neighbors and no one has any idea who would want to do this. None of them knew the girl but three of them knew Taylor – from the elevator, the parking lot, that kind of thing. Hey how you doing and so on." He followed Matt as he circulated around the apartment once again, ending up at the door.

"Doesn't look like it was forced, so they either knew the killer or weren't afraid of him for some reason. This is the only way in and out, right?" He hadn't spied any other way, but wanted to be sure.

"There's the fire escape out this way, but there doesn't seem to be any forced entry and it's locked." Hoyt showed the private investigator into the kitchen area and pointed out the window that led to the fire escape. Matt took a good look at the lock on the window and like Hoyt, didn't see any marks indicating that it had been forced open – or that it had been opened recently at all; in fact, there was a layer of dust on the handle.

"Hmm. So evidently our guy came and went through the front door. What about the security cameras?" Matt had noticed one in the elevator and another at either end of the hallway.

"The super is working on getting the feed for us. It's sent directly to the property management company that owns the building. They aren't open for business just yet."

"Did you find her purse?" He had been looking all over the apartment for it, but had yet to find it.

"No – we ID'ed her from this." He showed Matt a book that the photographer had evidently made that included the picture and information of each of the models that he had worked with – everything from their address and phone number right down to the dates of each photo shoot and who the client was that paid for the jobs.

"Are you done here?" Matt was headed toward the front door.

"Yes, the CSI's are on the way." He followed Matt out of the door and down the hallway to the elevator where they ran across Charlie Mason. "It's a messy one, Charlie."

"Oh goody. Great way to start the day." Charlie headed on down the hallway followed by the new tech that he was training.

Hoyt and Matt got onto the elevator and headed down to the street. "Okay, I'll go see what I can find on these two at my office, unless you've got another plan?" Matt looked over at the lieutenant. "Hey, are you okay?"

Michael nodded. "It's just been a long week. Hell, who am I kidding? It's been a long month. We just can't seem to catch a break. I knew things were going too smoothly about a month ago. You know I went two whole days without having to go out to a scene?"

"Really? That is unusual." Houston clapped his friend on the back. "Tell you what, how about you come to the office with me and we'll kick this thing around some?"

The veteran cop blew out a breath. "Might as well. Maybe a change of scenery will help. See you there." They parted ways out on the street and Matt high-fived Larry on his way to the truck.

Once he was back at the office and had parked the truck, he held the elevator for Hoyt and they rode up to the penthouse together. They met CJ who was just leaving with Catey Rose for a doctor's appointment. "Hey, is it that time already?" Matt leaned over and Catey gave him another kiss on the chin, causing Hoyt to smile.

"Yep, time for another round of shots." CJ didn't look too thrilled.

"Do you think you can handle her or do you need another pair of hands?" Matt's ears were grabbed by his curious daughter who found the whole thing to be hilarious – as did her Uncle Michael.

"No, I can get her. But we may head on home if she's fussy afterwards. Can you behave without us for a while?"

"Oh I don't know. I might just run amuck." Matt gave CJ a kiss and Hoyt gave Catey a kiss on the head.

"Good luck, Miss Catey Rose. Don't beat up on 'em too bad." Michael smiled as CJ and Catey boarded the elevator and took off for the appointment. The two men headed into the office and over to the coffee pot before stepping over the back of the couch and pulling up BABY the computer. "I always hated it when Kathy had to get her shots."

"You're telling me – I would have gladly traded places with Catey the last time – and I absolutely hate needles." Matt punched in the male victim's name. "Alrighty let's see here. Logan Holcomb, free-lance photographer, graduated from UCLA with a degree in Digital Photography and Video two years ago. Opened his business shortly thereafter. He's had a pretty steady job working for local record labels and has designed several critically acclaimed album covers." He punched a few more keys. "Family: mom and dad are divorced; he's got a younger sister Sicily who is currently enrolled at UCLA in the Drama program. He's never been married." He leaned back and studied the information in front of him and took a sip of the coffee. "Not much."

Leaning forward again, Matt punched in the name of the female victim. "Sherri Betts, model for one of the better agencies in town, has done layouts for a couple of Rodeo Drive jewelers and also for a local department store. Got into modeling while still in high school. Family: mom and dad both deceased, killed in an auto accident when she was sixteen…" Matt was looking to see who had taken custody of her. "Hmm, this is interesting. When the parents were killed she petitioned the court to be considered an emancipated minor – and was granted a declaration. She was already modeling steadily at the time and had a 4.0 grade point average. Beauty and brains – reminds me of CJ." He continued reading but nothing else caught his attention. He leaned back and drank more coffee as he thought.

"The crosses could stand either for or against religion. We really need to talk to someone who knew this pair well. The guy's sister might be able to help us with him, but who can we talk to about the girl?" He thought for a minute and then looked up Sherri Betts' address. "It's an apartment over on South Figueroa. Wonder if she's got a roommate?" He took another sip of coffee and looked over at Hoyt.

"Sounds like the logical place to start, then go check out the guy's sister." Michael drank down the last of his coffee as did Matt and then they got up and put their cups on the bar before starting back out to the elevator. "And how is Mrs. Murray Chase doing today?" He smiled at Matt's secretary.

"Just fine, thanks, and yourself?" She was all smiles.

"Oh, just wonderful - I have to run around with this guy looking for a murderer." He rolled his eyes.

Matt punched the button for the elevator and slapped Hoyt on the back of the head. "Manners – I could be studying my school books ya know."

"Oh boy, do you think he'll be the teacher's pet?" Hoyt grinned over at Chris.

"I would say you guys are the Three Stooges but you're missing a key component." She laughed as the two detectives boarded the elevator and headed out to work the case.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

Matt pulled up in front of the apartment building on South Figueroa. It was a fairly nice location and there were quite a few of what appeared to be college co-eds lounging around by the pool. As he double-checked his notebook for the apartment number, Matt caught sight of Hoyt watching him. "What?"

The lieutenant smiled and shook his head. "Just checking – there was a time when you would have walked into the pool trying to look at the girls."

"Well see, there's the difference: they're just girls. I'm married to a full-grown lady." He wiggled his eyebrows. "You know, it occurs to me that we may not get an answer at the apartment." Motioning to the girls he added, "If she does have a roommate she might be in class. We should probably check with the manager before we decide she doesn't have one."

"That's true." Hoyt hit the button for the elevator and the doors immediately opened. "So you said you dealt with the symbol in Houston – was it used in a religious or satanic way?"

Matt punched the button for the fifth floor. "That's a good question. The guy who did the killings was the illegitimate son of an overly religious woman. I'm not sure if he knew himself which way he intended them. The guy was nuttier than a squirrel fart." Matt looked over at Hoyt who burst into laughter.

"Where in the hell did that come from?" He could barely talk for laughing so hard.

"You never heard that before? Really Michael, you need to get out more." Matt managed to keep a straight face as he said it. When the doors opened, Hoyt was still bent over double laughing. "Come on Mikey, it'll be okay as soon as the meds kick in." When the lieutenant looked up there were six young women looking at him as if he had the plague. "Sorry ladies, this doesn't happen very often anymore since they changed his meds." Matt ushered Hoyt off of the elevator and was holding him by the arm. The veteran cop started hitting at the private investigator, causing him to erupt into laughter. "It's just a joke, man, calm down!"

"How could you do that to me?" Hoyt hissed at the man and was seriously considering kicking his best friend in the backside.

"Oh, it was easy. Want me to do it again?" Matt was chuckling as he walked down the hall. Hoyt smacked him on the back of the head. "Okay, cop: it's time to act all professional." Matt was having a rough time trying to regain his composure.

"Professional, huh – I'll make you think professional." He shot the private investigator a look of disgust. "I'm gonna tell CJ what you did."

"She'll just laugh and say it was better you than her." Matt grinned at his friend as he rang the doorbell to apartment 5-G. After waiting a minute, he rang again, this time getting a response. A beautiful redhead opened the door. It was quite obvious that she had been crying.

Hoyt showed his badge. "I'm Lt. Hoyt, LAPD and this is Matt Houston a consultant to the department. Are you Sherri Betts' roommate?"

"Yes, please come in." She stood back so that the two men could enter the apartment. "Have a seat." She sniffled into a tissue.

"I take it you've already heard the news?" Hoyt sat on the couch as did Matt.

"Yes, I heard about it on TV as I was getting ready for class." She sat in an armchair across from the two men.

"I realize this is a difficult time for you, Miss…?" Matt started in.

"Connie Fitzgerald. Sherri and I have been best friends since we were twelve. We went through school together and she stayed with my family when her parents were killed in a car wreck."

"Miss Fitzgerald, do you have any idea who might have wanted to harm Sherri?" Notebook in hand, Matt watched the girl's reaction.

"No, she was so sweet. Even though things had been tough on her, she was always happy. I don't know how she did it." She pulled another tissue from a box on the coffee table and blew her nose.

"Did she have a boyfriend?" Hoyt was looking around the apartment – the furnishings were extremely nice and there was a sixty inch plasma TV sitting to his left along the wall. Someone was definitely doing well.

"Yes, she was dating Logan Holcomb. They met a couple of years ago right after he graduated from college. He had just started out in the business and she was the first model that he photographed." She smiled as the tears started again. "He always said that shooting her wasn't even like work because the camera loved her almost as much as he did."

The two detectives exchanged a look. Matt thought for a minute. "Did she have an ex-boyfriend by chance?"

"No, she never dated until Logan came along. She was always real shy, especially around guys. The last time I talked to her was yesterday morning and she told me that Logan had asked her to marry him."

"Was there anyone that she had had trouble with at all?" Hoyt didn't think that they would be getting any information out of the girl that would lead to her killer, helpful though she might be.

"No…well yes there was, but it's been a couple of months ago." She sat up a little straighter. "Sherri told me about this guy who was kind of following her around. He kept asking her out, but she and Logan were dating and she told him no. It went on for about a week. She was real polite with him until he just wouldn't leave her alone and then she threatened to get a restraining order against him."

"Do you know what his name was?" Hoyt and Matt had exchanged a look.

"David, no…Darren maybe. It started with a D, I remember that."

"Miss Fitzgerald, did Sherri have a diary or a blog – something like that where she might have mentioned the guy's name?" Matt was hoping to get a look at the girl's room.

"She had a blog. It was on Goggle. She called it "Random Thoughts"."

"Okay, that's a good place to start. Would you mind if we took a look around here?" Hoyt, like Matt, wanted to look at the girl's room and see if there was anything there pointing to her killer.

"Sure, go ahead. If it will help you find whoever did this." Connie led the way down a short hall and opened the door to Sherri's room – an explosion of color. There on the walls was a partially completed mural.

"Wow." Matt walked in and was looking at it. "Did she do this herself?"

"Yeah, she was really artistic. She was planning on going to college this fall and taking graphic design classes – said that when she was too old to model she would have another career." Connie teared up again. "I'm sorry, do you need me here?"

"We might have some more questions for you but we can ask on our way out if that's okay with you." Hoyt was like Matt – completely impressed by the girl's obvious talent. The mural consisted of flowers, vines, birds – all tropical, like scenes from a jungle.

"This is really good." Matt had made it to the second wall where Sherri had been working with a pencil to sketch out the mural. "But, I'm not sure it's exactly what we're looking for – how about you?"

"Nope, but it is something." Both men wandered over to the desk that was against one wall, right under a window. Matt slipped on his gloves and opened the laptop that was there. Hoyt was watching. "Hmmm…password protected. Guess we'll have to get… how did you do that?" Matt had punched several keys and gained access to the computer.

He smiled at the cop. "Oh, just a little trick I've learned over the years." Sitting down in the chair, he started looking through the files on the machine. There were copies of quite a few contracts for her modeling services, lots of pictures from various photo shoots, as well as pictures of her and Logan Holcomb. Matt reached into his pocket and removed a flash drive and downloaded the contents of the documents and photos onto it. After looking through the rest of the machine he went on the internet to Sherri's blog that Connie had told them about and started reading. There were over a thousand pages. "I think this will have to be gone over later – it's going to take a while." He wrote down the name of the blog in his notebook and closed up the computer. He started going through the organizer on her desk. There were a few bills there: cell phone, charge card, car loan…nothing out of the ordinary. "Do you have any idea where her car is?" He turned and looked at Hoyt who was looking through the closet.

"No I don't. What does she drive?"

"According to the loan papers here she's got a Honda CR-Z – blue." Matt wrote down the VIN number and put the papers back - then as an afterthought, jotted down the cell phone number. He hadn't found anything so far about the man that Connie had told them about but was guessing that maybe it was on the blog. He finished up with the desk as Hoyt finished up with the chest of drawers. "I'm all done – you?"

Hoyt nodded. "Yeah, nothing that says anything about a stalker or whatever you want to call the guy." They both started back to the living room where the roommate was waiting for them.

"Did you find anything?" She had been crying again and now had red-rimmed eyes.

"We're not sure. Is there a number where we can contact you if we have any more questions, Miss Fitzgerald?" Hoyt wrote down the number in his notebook as did Matt and they left and headed to the address that they had for Taylor's sister - the Alpha Kappa Tau sorority house on Hilgard Avenue in the Westwood section of the city. Matt pulled into the curb under the shade of a large tree and Hoyt pulled in right behind him. As he got out of the truck, Matt was smiling and chuckling.

"Now what, PI? You better not try to pull anything here or I'm gonna…what?" Hoyt stopped as he noticed Matt carefully and covertly pointing up into the tree. The lieutenant looked up to find a collection of lingerie hanging from the tree. "What the hell?" He followed Matt on up to the front door. "What is the significance of that, Mr. Rice University?"

"Well, I'd say there are a couple of possible factors in play there." He was still smiling.

"And?" Hoyt couldn't wait to hear what those factors might be.

"Right off the top of my head I'd say it's got to do with the new class of pledges. Secondly, I would say that somebody stole someone else's boyfriend. But those are just guesses."

"And how do you…never mind. I don't think I want to know." Hoyt straightened his tie and cleared his throat as Matt rang the bell. It was answered by a girl who was wearing what could best be described as a Cleopatra-like outfit.

"Hi!" The girl appraised Matt and smiled. "Is there something I can help you with?" The batting eyelashes accentuated by the heavy use of mascara were slightly unnerving to Hoyt.

"Hi there." Matt looked over at Hoyt and cleared his throat. "Uh, we would like to speak with Sicily Holcomb, please."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind talking to you." She flipped her hair back and batted her eyes some more.

"Uh no, we need to talk to her about her brother." Matt seemed totally unaffected by the young woman's obvious flirtation.

"Oh alright." She flung the door open. "Have a seat in there." She pointed to the living room and the two detectives walked in. "I'll go get her."

"Thanks." Matt gave her a smile.

"Mm mm mm. You still have an effect on the ladies." Hoyt shook his head and smiled.

"She's a kid, Hoyt. Please." Matt shook his head and sat down on the couch while Hoyt looked around. The sounds of music, girls laughing, and the hum of a hair dryer could be heard.

"How do these girls get any school work done?" Hoyt didn't think he would be able to hear himself think much less do college-level work in such an environment.

"That's what earbuds are for, Michael – or the library." He smiled as he thought back to his college days.

"So when do your classes start?" Hoyt finally sat down next to the private investigator.

"Next month. The tenth to be exact."

"Are you nervous?"

"Naw, not really. It's only four classes and three of them are online. I think I can handle it." As he finished speaking a young woman walked into the room.

"Did you want to see me?" She looked slightly puzzled as to why they would be there.

"Are you Sicily Holcomb?" Hoyt stood up followed by Matt.

"Yes. Is there a problem?" She had seen Hoyt's badge.

"Uh Miss Holcomb, has anyone contacted you about your brother?" He thought surely that the notification had already been made.

"My brother?" She was alarmed. "What's the matter?" Matt and Hoyt exchanged a look.

"Here you better have a seat." Matt stepped aside so the girl could sit down. "Have your parents called you today?"

"I don't know…" She pulled out her phone. "Yeah, like twenty times. But I've been busy all morning, so I…oh God, something happened to Taylor?"

"Miss Holcomb, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your brother was murdered last night. There's no nice way to say it." Hoyt sat down next to her on the couch.

"Murdered?!" All the noises in the house stopped as if on cue and the other girls in the house began to drift into the living room.

"I realize this is a shock to you and I'm very sorry for your loss." Hoyt looked over at Matt as the young woman began to cry.

"What happened? Who would do this to him?" She completely lost it. Several of her sorority sisters came to her side, trying to calm her.

"I'm afraid we don't know that just yet. We thought you might be able to tell us a little bit about him. If he had any enemies or if he had problems with anyone lately."

"No, Taylor was just super sweet. Oh my God, Sherri's is going to go crazy." Evidently the look on Hoyt's face gave away the fact that Sherri was dead, too. "No, not her too?" She let out what could only be described as a mix between a scream and a groan.

Matt noticed that she went completely white. "Could one of you ladies get her a glass of water, please?" He got off of the couch and knelt down next to her. "Hon, I think you ought to lay down for a minute, okay? That's it, just ease on back." Hoyt grabbed a couple of pillows and placed them under her knees. One of the girls handed Matt a glass of water and he helped Sicily take a sip. "Would you like the lieutenant here to call your folks for you?" She nodded and handed Hoyt her phone. As he walked over toward the fireplace to make the call, the girl burst into tears again. "Easy now. I know, but you've got to calm down some, okay?" Matt patted her hand. She nodded again. Then Matt saw the anger come into her eyes.

"I want you to find out who did this." Sicily's voice shook with the rage that was coursing through her veins.

"That's what we're trying to do. We came to see if you could help us." Matt helped her take another sip as Hoyt walked back over to the couch and handed the phone back to the girl.

"Your father was already on his way down here. He should be here any minute now."

"Thank you – both. I'm sorry; I just can't believe anybody would hurt Taylor. Or Sherri." She took another sip of water. "I'm alright now." She started to sit up and Matt helped her. "I don't know what I could tell you. He didn't have any enemies that I know of – everybody loved him and Sherri, too." She shuddered. Just then her dad was brought into the room by one of the sisters and he rushed to his daughter. "Oh Daddy, I can't believe he's gone! It's just not fair!" Sicily started crying again.

Mr. Holcomb looked at Matt and Hoyt. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lt. Hoyt, LAPD and this is Matt Houston, a consultant to the department. I realize this is a tough time for your family but we really need your help to find out who did this." Hoyt hated being around the family of a murder victim.

"Whatever we can do, Lieutenant. Anything." He sat down on the couch next to his daughter.

Matt looked around the crowded room. "Ladies, thanks so much for your help. Could you give us a little privacy, please?" The room slowly began to empty. "Mr. Holcomb, do you know if your son was having any problems with anyone?"

"No, not that I know of but Taylor is an easy going person, Mr. Houston." Mr. Holcomb looked down at the floor. "He always gets along with everyone."


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

"Have you ever noticed that when someone gets murdered you always hear "everybody loved them"?" Matt wiped the corner of his mouth then took another bite of hamburger.

"Uh huh." Hoyt was declaring war on his fries. "But nine times out of ten they were killed by someone who held a grudge against them."

"But there's always that tenth time." Matt looked at his phone again. He hadn't heard anything from CJ and he was wondering how Catey was doing. Shoving a fry into his mouth, he punched CJ's number on speed dial. He could hear his daughter crying in the background when his wife answered. "Hey, how did it go?"

"The actual shots went fine, but she's running a little bit of fever right now." The concern in his wife's voice alarmed him a little.

"Did you give her the drops?"

"Yeah, but it was thirty minutes ago. I was hoping that it would help by now."

Matt put down his burger. "Are you home yet?"

"Yeah, we made it here about five minutes ago."

"Hoyt, we've reached the end of our visiting folks today haven't we?" Matt couldn't help but be concerned about his daughter.

"Yeah, I think we've covered that pretty well. Go on and take care of Catey."

"Hey Babe, I'm on the way. Yeah I know, but…but…" He was listening to CJ. "Well it might not make her feel better but it would make me feel better. I'll be there ASAP. Love you. 'Bye." The private investigator got up from the table and threw the contents of his tray into the trash.

"Houston, all she needs is a little acetaminophen and some sleep. She'll be okay." Hoyt had been through the same thing with his daughter, but this was Matt's first time having to deal with it.

"I know, but…she's crying, Hoyt. She hardly ever cries." He took a sip of his Fizzy Pop. "I know, I'm silly. It's just…" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Go make things right for your baby girl, Daddy." Hoyt grinned at him. "If it makes you feel any better, I did the same thing."

"Thanks. I'll work on reading the blog while I'm at home." He took off toward his house. After making the trip home in near record time, Matt walked in the kitchen door and could hear his daughter crying still. He walked into the den where CJ was holding her and doing her best to calm her but she wasn't having any part of it.

"Want to give it a try?" She handed Catey off to Matt and after a couple of minutes of talking to her she started to calm down, but only slightly.

"I've got an idea." He walked out through the kitchen and down toward the barn. CJ followed along, and it didn't take her long to figure out what Matt had in mind. By the time he reached the pasture fence, Cricket was already standing there whinnying. Catey absolutely adored Cricket and the horse seemed to feel the same way. As soon as the baby saw the horse she started to calm down. Cricket was craning her head over the top of the fence to be able to nuzzle the baby. After a few minutes of her dad rubbing her hand on the jaw of the horse, Catey yawned and snuggled into his chest, drifting off to sleep. Matt patted the horse. "Good job, Cricket." He turned and headed back up to the house with his daughter and carefully put her in the crib.

Going into the kitchen, Matt pulled CJ into his arms. "Phew. Thank goodness she loves Cricket so much." He grinned at his wife.

"Wish I had thought of that." She smiled up at her husband.

"Well it always makes me feel better to be around the horses when something is bothering me, so I thought it was worth a try." He leaned down, taking CJ's face into his hands and kissed her. "Hmmm, it's been a while since I was home in the middle of a workday." Matt wiggled his eyebrows at CJ.

"Yes, it has." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, then let out a slight squeal as he picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom.

Later on that afternoon, Matt grabbed a cup of coffee and walked into the den, picking up the laptop on the way to his recliner. He pulled up Sherri Betts' blog and went back three months and began reading. Most of what the girl had posted related to her boyfriend and her job. But along the way, Matt discovered that Sherri had been a pretty good poet. He wasn't a big fan of poetry, but he liked what the young woman had written. It made sense, unlike some of the drivel that he had been forced to read in high school and college. By the time he got to the next month he found what Connie Fitzgerald had been talking about – the guy that was stalking Sherri. At first she would see him while she was in the checkout line at the grocery but didn't think anything of it: if he lived in the neighborhood, he would probably shop at the market. Next she started seeing him when she left in her car or when she went to the movies or even out on a date with Logan. After she told her boyfriend about the man, he had approached him and asked in a nice way for him to stop following her. It had worked – for about a week. Then she started seeing him everywhere, he repeatedly asked her out, and that's when she threatened him with a restraining order. That had been about a month ago, and after that there were no more entries about the man. She had found out that his name was Darrel Vincent. Other than a vague description of him that could have matched literally thousands of men in the Los Angeles area, there was nothing else about him in the blog.

CJ came and sat down next to Matt after starting a load of laundry. "Something to do with the case?"

Matt nodded and explained what little he and Hoyt had learned so far, then looked up Darrel Vincent. "Um. Not exactly an unpopular name." Matt had found four Darrel Vincents in the phone listings in LA. He started checking on each one, and decided that the fourth one was the guy.

"This is interesting. He's been served with four restraining orders in the last four years. It seems like he picks a woman and starts following her. I wonder…" Matt punched a few more keys and was looking for obituaries for the women that had filed restraining orders against the man. "Oh boy, this is looking likely. CJ, three of the four women who filed restraining orders against him are dead." He pulled out his phone and called Hoyt.

"Hey bud, I think I might be on to something." He explained what he had found and Hoyt agreed with him.

"I think we need to bring this guy in for questioning." He took down the address that Matt gave him. "How's Catey doing?"

"She's asleep. Finally." Matt looked over at CJ and grinned. "Cricket took care of the problem for us."

"Cricket? How did a horse… why am I even bothering to ask?" Hoyt laughed. "I'm going to see about picking this guy up, want to come along?"

Matt looked over at CJ. "Do you think you girls will be okay?"

"Sure, now that I know the secret." She grinned. "You boys be careful."

"Alright, CJ says I can come out and play." He ducked as she swatted at him. "Be there in a little bit." He hung up and gave his wife a kiss. "Love you, Babe."

"Love you. Be careful."

"Yes ma'am, I always am." He kissed her and headed out the door. When he got to the police station, Hoyt had already gathered a couple of patrolmen to help them with Darrel Vincent. Matt had put on his bulletproof vest when he got out of the truck and had his pistol in his holster by the time Hoyt met him in the garage.

"Are we expecting trouble?" Hoyt was a little surprised.

"No, but I've been instructed to be careful by the boss." He grinned as he got into the car with Hoyt and they pulled out of the garage. It was a ten minute drive to the apartment of Darrel Vincent. He lived on the second floor of an older apartment building on Jefferson Boulevard. As they started into the building, Hoyt told one of the officers to guard the door. Just inside the building they noticed an out of order sign on the elevator and headed up the stairs. Approaching apartment 316, Matt unlashed his pistol as did the patrolman. Hoyt knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" The voice from inside was that of a younger male.

"LAPD." Hoyt held his badge up in front of the peephole.

"Whadaya want?"

"I need to speak with Darrel Vincent."

"He ain't here."

"Open the door, sir." Hoyt unfastened his pistol and removed it from the holster after noticing Matt removing his. They could hear movement on the other side of the door, then the sound of a shotgun being pumped.

"Look out!" Matt yelled at the other two men just before the apartment door exploded outward from the force of the round. He ducked down and took a quick glance through what was left of the door and pulled his head back just in time as another shot was fired. The next sound that they heard was glass shattering and then they heard the patrolman outside yelling and another shotgun blast. Hoyt ran into the apartment and looked out the window while Matt and the other patrolman ran downstairs and out into the parking lot, just in time to see an old Camaro squealing out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed. "Damn it!" Matt headed for Hoyt's car just as the detective got there and they took off after the Camaro. They lost it after a bus pulled in front of the police car, even though the lights were flashing and the siren was sounding.

Hoyt turned the car around and headed back to the apartment. "Guess this would give us plenty of probable cause, huh?" Matt pointed at the apartment door which looked like a picture frame holding a bunch of splinters. They went inside and started looking around. Matt headed for the bedroom and began looking around. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the room just seemed off, and after a minute or so of looking around, he figured out what it was: the man had turned the closet into a room by knocking out one of the support posts and extending in the direction of the bathroom. "How in the hell could the apartment manager not notice this?" He looked at Hoyt who shrugged.

"From the looks of this place I doubt the manager is a real stickler for inspecting the property." The cop followed Matt into the makeshift room and both men caught their breath as he turned on the light. There along the walls was what amounted to a timeline in the life of Sherri Betts. There were literally hundreds of photographs of the young woman – including one of her lying dead on the floor of Taylor Holcomb's apartment. The two detectives exchanged a look and Hoyt pulled out his phone to call in the CSI techs.

Matt moved down the timeline and looked at the pictures more closely. Some had been taken outside the dead girl's apartment, some when she was in her car and others while she was shopping. He turned and looked at the opposite wall, where there were the beginnings of a timeline for another beautiful young woman. "Hoyt." Matt waved the detective over.

"Oh my God, he's already stalking another one."


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5 **

After spending another hour looking through the apartment and trying to find out the name of the young woman who was now being stalked, Matt and Hoyt ended back up at the lieutenant's office. "The only way I know of to find out who she might be is to go to the TV stations for help – get them to broadcast her picture. And use the newspapers, too." Matt took a sip of the coffee that Hoyt handed him as his phone rang. "Uh oh." He answered it. "Hi, Babe…yeah, we're okay. I was. Yeah…alright. I don't know yet. I will. Yes ma'am. Love you. 'Bye." He hung up expecting Hoyt to rag on him about the call but was pleasantly surprised when he didn't. "It's already on the news." Matt looked at his watch: 11:10pm.

"Great. Just what we need. Another 'see the cops screw up' story." Hoyt was madder than Matt could remember seeing him in quite some time.

"I know a bus driver that needs to lose his job, I'll tell you that." Matt couldn't believe that the driver had just pulled right out in front of them like that.

"I heard that. At least we've got an APB out for Darrel Vincent and his car." Hoyt sat down behind his desk and sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"There's not really much else that we can do tonight." Matt stood up and stretched, finished the cup of coffee and threw the styrofoam cup in the trash. "Guess I'm going to head on home. Go home and get some sleep, cop. We'll get on this guy's tail tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess so. I'll leave after I talk to the department spokesman. He's supposed to call me back. See you tomorrow."

"Alright. 'Night." Matt walked on out of the office and headed home for the night. CJ was asleep in his recliner where she had been waiting for him. Just as he was about to wake her up, Catey started crying and he went down the hall to see about her. As he pulled her out of the crib to change her diaper, CJ appeared in the doorway. "Her fever's gone." Matt turned and grinned at his wife. Catey was doing her usual cooing and gurgling, glad to see her daddy. He talked quietly to her as he changed the diaper and took her into the kitchen to get a bottle. CJ was already warming it up for her and he took the baby and sat down in the recliner.

CJ walked in and handed him a bib and the bottle. "She doesn't seem any worse for wear. Just off her schedule a little bit."

"Nope." Matt was watching his daughter as she hungrily drank the formula. "I guess Hoyt was right."

"Oh, about what?" CJ snuggled up next to him, tucking her feet underneath her.

"When I was leaving to come home this afternoon he told me she just needed the drops and a nap." He looked at his wife a little sheepishly. "Guess I over-reacted."

"Nah – you just happen to be a good dad." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. Catey drank the rest of her bottle and dozed right off. Matt carried her back to her crib, kissing her gently before putting her back to bed, and then walked hand in hand with CJ to his own room for the night.

When he woke up to the alarm clock the next morning, he could hear Catey cooing and talking. He looked over and CJ was sitting on the other side of the bed. "Maybe she's having a conversation with her teddy bear." Matt chuckled and went to peek around the corner at his daughter, who was in fact holding a small teddy bear and seemed to be jabbering at it. He went back and headed for the shower. "Yup, she's telling the bear all about it." He and CJ laughed.

When Matt got to the kitchen after his shower, he poured himself a cup of coffee and stood leaning against the kitchen counter while CJ and Catey talked over her morning bottle. "I put your waffles in the microwave, hon." She took the bottle to the sink after the baby was done with it, then poured herself a cup of coffee. "What have you got going on today?"

"I think I'm just going to Hoyt's office. Hopefully something will happen and Darrel Vincent will get shaken loose today." He poured syrup on the waffles and dug in while Catey was busy talking to him, then rinsed his plate and put it in the dishwasher before heading out. "I'll see you girls later." He gave CJ a goodbye kiss, then Miss Catey Rose, and headed on out to the truck and into town.

Hoyt was already in his office when Matt arrived and didn't look like he had slept much the night before. "Howdy." Matt walked in and sat down on the couch. "Any sign of Vincent?"

"No." Hoyt yawned.

"Did you even go home last night?"

"Yep."

Matt watched the man. "Liar." Hoyt's head shot up. "That's the same tie you had on yesterday." The detective looked down at the tie, then back up at Houston.

"Shut up." He sat back down behind his desk.

"Well that's an improvement – you said two words that time." Matt managed to keep a straight face as Hoyt scowled at him. "So – what did the spokesman have to say? That he wasn't worried about you getting his job?"

"Bite me." Hoyt took a sip of coffee. "He's going to the TV stations today. Actually, he already has – I saw it earlier."

"Aha! Seventeen words – you are shooting for his job."

"I'm about to shoot a PI." Hoyt couldn't help but crack up. "Thanks, by the way."

"Anytime. Now, I've had an idea while I was cussing at folks in traffic. Do you reckon our stalker has ever been in a mental hospital?"

"Good idea." He reached for the keyboard and the phone rang. "Hoyt. Uh huh. Where? Okay, I'm headed that way. NO! DO NOT APPROACH HIM! Just keep an eye on him."

Matt was already out the door and headed for the elevator. Hoyt caught up with him just as the doors opened. "Where is he?"

"The Vincent Thomas Bridge." Hoyt pulled out his pistol and checked the load, then noticed the look on Matt's face. "What?"

"Nothing. Just brings back some bad memories." Matt was thinking back a few years when his old friend Wildcat Callahan had been shot and killed by a man that was trying to kill Matt. That man had ended up in an accident, running his car off of the Vincent Thomas Bridge and into the harbor. He went to his truck and got his vest and gun, then joined Hoyt in the police car and the pair took off for the bridge. "Which side is he on?"

"East bound." Hoyt was moving at a good clip through the morning traffic but it still took twenty minutes for them to reach the bridge.

"There he is." Matt saw the man first and Hoyt's phone started ringing.

"Damn it!" He pulled it out and hit the speaker button. "Hoyt."

"Lieutenant, we just had a call from one of the local TV stations. They've identified the girl that you're looking for – her name is Sarah Marshall."

"Okay, have someone go to her address and standby." He hung up and slowed as he got near Darrel Vincent. Matt already had his seatbelt unfastened and was ready to jump out. Just as they got within twenty feet of him, he took off running across the lanes of traffic and jumped over the divider into the west bound lanes where he began shooting at a car. When the driver stopped, he ran over to the vehicle pulling the driver out and took off again. "Damn it!" Hoyt called for a blockade on the other side of the bridge but there were no units available. He sped on across the bridge, then got on the entrance ramp to go back across, cursing the traffic as he went. By the time they got across, there was no sign of the man or the car either one. "I can't believe we lost him again!" The veteran cop pounded on the steering wheel.

"Easy pard, come on now, we'll get him. At least we know who the girl is – we might be able to lure him in using her." Matt was starting to worry about his friend but his comments seemed to have settled the man down somewhat. "What's her address?"

"I don't know. I'll have to call Sanchez back." He reached for the phone but Matt got it first.

"I'll call Sanchez and you drive. Deal?" He pushed the send button and made the call. "Hey, it's Houston. No he got over the dividing wall and carjacked somebody. Listen, what's the girl's address? Yeah, okay. 'Bye." He hung up. "She lives in the same apartment building that Sherri Betts lived in. Second floor."


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

Hoyt pulled up in the parking lot of the apartment complex and he and Matt headed for the second floor. As they waited for someone to answer the doorbell, Hoyt took a big breath and exhaled. The door to apartment 2-C was opened by none other than Larry Carlisle. "Larry, we've really gotta stop meeting like this – CJ's gonna get jealous." Matt and Hoyt walked on inside where Sarah Marshall was sitting on the couch looking extremely afraid.

Hoyt walked over to her. "Miss Marshall? I'm Lt. Michael Hoyt and this is Matt Houston. We have reason to believe that you're the target of a murderer by the name of Darrel Vincent – do you know him?"

The girl nodded. "I just took out a restraining order against him yesterday. The man who was supposed to serve it told me this morning that he hadn't been able to find him to serve him. Please, sit down."

Matt sat in the armchair that was next to the couch. "Miss Marshall, I don't know if you keep up with the news but one of your neighbors, Sherri Betts, was killed the night before last at her boyfriend's apartment. We think that it was Vincent who did it."

Sarah Marshall wrapped her arms around herself. "I heard that. I didn't really know her well, just met a couple of times in the elevator." She sighed. "Do you know why he's doing these things?"

"No ma'am, we don't. We were wondering if we could get you to help us try to catch him." Hoyt was seated next to her on the couch.

"What can I do?"

"Do you have anyway of contacting him?" Matt had leaned back and now had his left ankle propped on his right knee.

"As a matter of fact he left a message on my phone." She reached over and hit the play button on the phone base.

"Hi Sarah, this is Darrel. I don't know if you remember me or not, but we met at the market a couple of weeks ago. I was just wondering if you would like to go out sometime. Uh, I'll call you back later." The message ended.

"Who is supposed to be serving the restraining order?" Matt looked over at Hoyt.

"A process server named Charles White." She picked up a business card that was lying by the phone and handed it across to the private investigator.

"Okay, we know this guy won't be going to his apartment – we had a run-in with him there last night. Do you have any idea where he works?"

Sarah got up and went to her bedroom returning with a piece of paper that had all of the information that was contained in the restraining order and handed it to Hoyt. "Matt, he works at the recycling center on Jefferson – that's just down from his apartment."

"Okay, the way I see it, we've got a couple of ways to approach this. We could go to the recycling center to try to find him – but as close as that is to his apartment I'm not real sure that he would be there. Secondly, we could have Miss Marshal here call him back and tell him that she wants to go out. That seems more likely to me." Matt was tapping his fingers on his boot.

"I really don't think that he'll be at work either. I'll send Sgt. Barons over there to see if he's there by chance. The guy is a nutjob, so anything is possible. I think we need to stay here." Hoyt looked at the young woman. "Do you think you can do this, or would you rather not try?"

"Oh I'll do it all right. He's not going to have me living in fear the rest of my life." She looked between the two men.

Matt smiled at her. "Alright, let's get creative and come up with a script for you."

Half an hour later, she placed the call, which as it turned out, was to Darrel Vincent's cell phone. Hoyt had already arranged for a GPS track on the phone but it was turned off. As they sat waiting, Matt called CJ. "Hey can I get you to do some checking for us?"

"Sure. Whatcha need?" CJ had just put Catey down for a nap and was on her way back up to her office.

"See if you can find out anything else about this guy – any court records aside from the restraining orders – maybe something to do with his mental health. We didn't get that far this morning before all the action started."

"I can do it. I'll call you back when I've got something. Love you."

"Love you, too Babe. 'Bye." He hung up and walked over to the window, carefully peeking around the curtain to look at the parking lot below. The patrol car had already been put back into service and Hoyt's car wasn't quite as noticeable since it was parked between two big SUV's.

An hour passed with no word from Vincent, but CJ called Matt back. "Hey pal, I found out a couple of things about your stalker. He was put in the custody of DCS when he was ten. It seems that his mother died and his dad was, shall we say, a little less than stable himself. After Darrel had been in DCS custody for about a year, his dad was killed when he broke into a woman's home and tried to rape her."

"Sounds like the apple didn't fall too far from the tree." Matt passed the information on to Hoyt. "Did you get anything else?"

"As it happens I did indeed. He has been put in the hospital several times for psych evaluations, but with the state's budget problems, he was released after being in treatment for less than a month. I haven't been able to get the actual records because of privacy laws."

"I'm still trying to figure out the crosses on the victims. Did you see anything that would explain it in his records?" Matt was pacing around the living room. He hated just sitting around waiting for the man to strike.

"Possibly. He became an altar boy just a few months before his mother passed away. When he was put into DCS custody, he didn't get to serve anymore due to the distance of the orphanage from the church that he had attended with his mom. But, what is even stranger, his father was supposedly a Satan worshipper."

"No wonder the guy is so messed up. So the crosses could stand either for religion or against it – just like the guy in Houston." He blew out a breath. "Okay, thanks Babe. I'll call you later. Love you."

"Love you, too hon. And Matt – be extra careful, okay?"

"Yes ma'am, I've got my vest right here with me. 'Bye." He hung up and filled Hoyt in on the rest of the information that his wife had found. Then Sarah Marshall's phone rang. She put it on speaker like Hoyt had told her and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sarah, it's Darrel. I'm glad you called me back. Where would you like to go out?" Matt and Hoyt exchanged looks.

"Oh, just wherever you'd like, Darrel. I'm sure you'll pick some place really nice." Sarah looked at Hoyt who nodded his approval.

"There's a great restaurant that I'd like to try – do you like Italian food?"

"Sure. When do you want to go?" Matt thought that Sarah should get into acting – she was really believable.

"How about lunch?"

"Sure. Will you be picking me up or do you want to meet there?"

"I'll pick you up. I've got the address."

"Okay, well I'll be here. I'm looking forward to seeing you, Darrel. Goodbye." She hung up and looked at Hoyt who nodded again.

"You're pretty good at this. What's your major?" Matt had sat back down in the armchair.

"I'm a Communications major." She grinned at Matt.

"Okay, we're going to let him come up, ring the doorbell, and you'll let him in – and then we'll take him." Hoyt looked over at Matt who had started putting on his vest again.

"Just in case." He slapped the Velcro into place and checked the magazine in his pistol. Matt was going to hide in the closet while Hoyt would be stationed at the end of the entertainment center where he would be hidden.

Twenty minutes later the doorbell rang. Sarah went to the door. "Hi Darrel, it's nice to see you again." She plastered a smile on her face. "Won't you come in? I'll just be a minute." She opened the door for him. "Just have a seat. I'll be right back. I need to get my cell phone." Sarah walked on back to the bedroom where she had been instructed to hide. Darrel sat down in the chair that was facing toward the window and away from the entertainment center where Hoyt was hiding. As if on cue, both he and Matt slipped out of their hiding places at the same time and approached the man.

"Hi, Darrel." Matt had his Glock leveled at the man who jumped to his feet and started toward the door, only to discover that his path was blocked by Hoyt. He reached inside his jacket. "Nope, don't even. Put your hands in the air."

Darrel froze, his hand still inside his jacket. "Put your hands in the air, Darrel, it's all over." Hoyt moved toward the man and saw his eyes dart between himself and Matt who was also advancing on the stalker.

"Come on, man, take your hand out of…" Matt didn't get to finish: Darrel pulled a butcher knife out of his jacket and was ready to come after the private investigator. "DROP IT! NOW!" Matt didn't want to shoot the man, but would if he needed to do it.

"Drop it, Darrel. We'll find somebody to help you, okay?" Hoyt was trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"Yeah, just like they helped me before, just like they did when my mom died. They took me away from everything and everybody I loved. No way. Now back off!" He lunged at Matt, cutting his arm. The private investigator never even flinched but took the opportunity of Darrel being so close to hit him with an uppercut. The stalker was thrown off balance and went backwards landing on the floor. He jumped back to his feet, lunging at Matt once again. As the knife sliced through his vest, Matt pulled the trigger on the Glock, the force of the shot throwing Darrel back into the window frame where he slowly sank down to the living room floor. Hoyt ran toward the stalker, but by the time he reached him, he was already dead. Matt had hit dead center of his chest. Hoyt then turned his attention to Matt who had sunk down to his knees, holding his ribs on his left side.

"This is Lt. Hoyt. I need an ambulance at the Tarawood Apartments number 2-C. We've got a man that's been stabbed. We also need the coroner and the CSI's to this location." He hung up and knelt down next to Matt. "Easy Houston, just lay down here." He tried to ease the private investigator down onto the floor, but he shook his head no.

"I need to stay up – hard to breathe." Matt was wheezing slightly as Hoyt applied pressure to the wound. "These vests are great for bullets but they don't do squat against a knife." He grinned at Hoyt.

"Shut up, PI. I've already gotta call CJ and let her know that you've been stabbed, I don't need you dying on me."

"Nah, I won't do that – your life would be way too boring." He had broken out in a sweat.

Sarah Marshall had crept back out of the bedroom and saw what had happened. She ran back into the bathroom and grabbed a couple of towels to try to staunch the bleeding from Matt's wound. By the time the ambulance arrived, Houston was out cold. Hoyt followed the ambulance to the hospital and called CJ on the way, letting her know what had happened.

CJ arrived at the hospital less than five minutes after Matt was brought in. Hoyt was waiting for her, looking worried. "Any word yet?" CJ was doing her best to stay calm. Matt had been stabbed several times before, twice extremely close to his heart.

"Not yet. He got stabbed in the ribs," Hoyt pressed his left side, "and his left arm got cut. The arm's not too serious, but I'm not sure about his ribs." He didn't want to tell her that he knew without a doubt that Matt's lung had been penetrated.

One of the doctor's came out as CJ was nervously busy filling out the forms that one of the nurses had brought to her. He sat down with the two of them and explained that the knife had gone cleanly between Matt's fifth and sixth ribs puncturing his left lung but stopping just short of his heart. "He's on his way to surgery right now. It shouldn't take any longer than forty five minutes to an hour and then we'll move him into a recovery room and then up to the SICU. He's lost a good bit of blood, but I think he'll be just fine with a little time." He smiled at CJ, and then got a serious look on his face. "I'm new here, but all of the nurses seem to know him really well. In fact one of them was explaining quite a few of his scars to me. She told me that he's a private investigator. Is that right?"

"Yes, he is." CJ had managed to keep her cool, much to Hoyt's surprise.

"I never realized that was such a dangerous occupation. Well, anyway, he's about to head down to surgery, but the nurses thought you might like to come back and see him for a minute. They seem to have the impression that you might just bust down the door any minute." He smiled at her again and led the way back to the exam room. Hoyt followed along.

Matt was lying on a gurney with an IV in his left arm that was bandaged between his wrist and just below his elbow, and had an oxygen mask on his face. His breathing was shallow and somewhat shaky and he was pale, but other than that he seemed okay. CJ leaned down and kissed him on his cheek. The conversations that they had shared while in Texas, about closing the detective agency were echoing through her mind. But she knew that he was doing what he loved and what he felt was the best way for him to help people. Hoyt reached down and squeezed his hand. "Okay, we're ready to take him down to surgery." One of the nurses took hold of the gurney. CJ kissed him one more time and they rolled him out of the door. She and Michael went back out into the hallway and down to the surgical waiting room.

As they sat down, she reached over and took Hoyt by the hand. He looked like he was near tears. "Hey, what's the matter?"

He shook his head. "I need to quit calling him in, CJ. He's going to get killed one of these days and it's going to be my fault."

"Hoyt, he's doing what he loves – and what he happens to be very good at doing. Look," she squeezed the lieutenant's hand, "when we were in Texas, he spent a lot of time thinking about this very thing. And you know what he told me?" Hoyt shook his head no. "He told me, and I quote: "I know it's a dangerous line of work, but it's something that I'm good at and that I enjoy – usually. Getting to help people is something that I like doing. I may not be able to change the whole world, but I can sure make things better for the folks that I come in contact with.""

"He actually said all that?" Hoyt was a little surprised.

"Yep, word for word. And because I know that, and I know that he was trying to be careful by wearing his vest, I haven't flown all to pieces like I did when the bomb went off under his truck." She patted Michael's hand. "And something else; you told me yourself that he could have pulled the trigger before he did – he was trying to help the guy out. That doesn't make it your fault, now does it?" The policeman just shrugged.

"Where's Catey?"

"Chris is taking care of her. She's fine." CJ was actually smiling.

Hoyt sighed and looked over at her and then put his arm around her shoulders. "You know something? You are one tough lady – and Matt's lucky to have you for his wife."

"Of course he is." She smiled again. "And he's lucky to have you for a friend."

"Well I've got to tell you, after what he pulled yesterday I'm very close to dissolving our friendship."

CJ looked at him and squinted her eyes. "What did he do this time?" As Hoyt explained, she started laughing uncontrollably.

"Uh huh, he's ruined you. You used to be so sweet – but now, you're almost as bad as him." Hoyt gave her a look of disapproval.

"You know, that's what Vince was telling me last month." She just laughed harder.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

Four days later, Matt was back at home sitting in his recliner and catching up with Catey Rose. He had missed her while he was in the hospital and evidently she had missed him as well. She squealed when he came in the kitchen door. As soon as he was settled, he asked Chris to hand her over. Much to his surprise, Uncle Roy walked in the door, followed by his son Will and Matt's best friend Vince Novelli. "What in the world are y'all doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in Houston?"

"We got done with the job there and decided to fly back and check up on you. CJ tells me that you discovered that vest of yours isn't very good at keeping out a knife."

"Yeah, you got that right. That sucker went through there like – well, like a knife through hot butter." They all laughed, Matt wincing at the pain in his ribs as he did so. "I don't really think you came back because of me – you missed Catey, didn't you?" His uncle came over and took the baby.

"Well hell, he figured it out, boys." They all laughed again.

Vince came over and sat down on the couch. "Mama wants to know when you're going to figure out how to do your job without getting hurt every time you turn around."

"I am too, bud." They talked on for a few minutes and Will and Roy followed CJ into the kitchen.

Vince scooted over closer to Matt. "I've got a question for you: did you agree to help out the fire marshal's office to try to get away from things like this?" He looked his friend square in the eye.

Matt looked down and nodded. "Truthfully, yes Vince. I thought – hell, I don't know. Maybe I can kind of head in a slightly different direction. Not that it won't still be dangerous if I go after some nut who started a fire, but maybe not AS dangerous, you know?"

The former police officer nodded. "That's what I figured. Nobody would blame you if you completely quit you know. You could be a gentleman farmer or rancher or whatever you want to call it."

Houston nodded again. "I don't know, Vince. Maybe one day. I just don't think I'm there yet, though." Neither man said anything for a minute. "Would you do me a favor?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Don't say anything to anybody about this conversation, okay?" He looked up at his best friend.

"What conversation?" Vince grinned at him.

Later on that afternoon, Matt was sitting out by the pool looking through the textbooks that he would be using for his classes when he heard a familiar voice. "Aha! Caught you being all studious, didn't I?" Michael Hoyt came up and sat down next to him. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay, just a little sore. I was going to call you – did you ever find out why Vincent hacked the crosses into the bodies?"

"Nope. I've looked all through his belongings. I can't make any sense out of it. Maybe it's like the guy in Texas you were talking about – maybe he didn't know himself why he did it." Hoyt looked down toward the barn where Cricket was whinnying. "I'm sorry about what happened."

"Why would you be sorry? You didn't stab me." Matt cocked his head and looked at Hoyt out of the corner of his eye.

"No, but…I told CJ I didn't think I should call you in on cases anymore." He looked over at Matt.

"Now why in the hell would you want to bust up a great partnership? Hell, we're like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in those movies." Matt chuckled, then decided that wasn't a good idea in his current state.

"Danny Glover? I'm a hell of a lot better looking than Danny Glover! I can't believe you said that!" Hoyt looked at Matt and grinned.

"Well I'm better looking than Mel Gibson, but hey, not everybody can be as lucky as I am, ya know." He gave Hoyt a big grin.


End file.
